The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1887-08-17


following account:
4 was in the second sleeper, and we were
going along nbout Midnight when there came
a peculiar jostling. / thought that lad
been deTails1. Our porter said, We are all
right when some one said There 10 a ire
ahead / got up and went TO the front The
head engine hal ruske ed over the chasm The
second engine had tumbled into IT, 1t had
telescoped, and the engineer was shapeless
mass The first car was turned at right angles
with the track and the remaining eleven cars
had telescoped and piled up In one heap:
Several Of us climbed on the cars with axes
and lanterns and went to work. The first man
we found was Billy Stevens. the confectioner.
He was dead. We pulled him out after
effort. and then pulled his daughters Emma
and ida, out They were al dead. Every one
was groaning and crying. Their feet seemed
70 be jammed Most OF them had their legs
broken After an hour and half we cleared
the car They were Offering 81 each for relief.
Probably there we're IA dozen bodies taken out.
Mrs Deal was one OF these
II then went down ON the ground and assisted
in taking the dead down. The people ON the
ground put plank up and the bodies taken out
were slid down the plank. The dead were put
in one pile and the living in another. Livery
live person seemed to want to soc their families
at once.
zone Of the horrible incidents was this: A
man, well dressed, who was SO badly in ured/
that his bowels were protruding, called 1ncest
sanity for water and as he could not lie attend4
ed to he finally pulled out his revolver al shot
himself through the head.
zone little boy, the son 81 the Methodist min
lister ut Abingdon--Frank Snadecker about IL
years old-was found on the bosom Of his dead
mother. His left leg hung by the skin, his right
arm was broken, and one eye ives put out.
They pulled him out and tried to give him a
drink OF brandy. He refused 10 take 1t and
said: Give me water he never uttered q
1t WAS apparently that OF O. man who had been
caught by the hair.
Il found several headless bodies Those
tho recognized the dead immediately ticketed
them.
some q the most awful sights was that some
OF those released robbed the dead Of their
watches and valuables, and some people held
the theory that the bridge was set on TIRE in
order to thus perpetrate robberies
w. Quicker, one of the Galesburg passengers,
relates q singular experience. His wife and he
were in the rear OF chair car, the tenth car OF
the train. They had no warning of what was
to come. The train WAS running at the rate Of
thirty-ive miles an hour. Mr.. Quicker Eas
aroused by the terrible crush of glass Ind
breaking timbers. The end Of the cur MAS
poised twenty feet in the air. He crawled
through broken window ana slid down the
slanting side of the car. His wife followed
safely Several Galesburg people who were in
that end of the car escaped without serious in
jury. The top of the car parted IN the center.
The other end was crusLod he an egg-shell.
l.. p. Van Lew, who walked from the safe end
OF the car the moment before was caught and
dangerously injured.
There were thirty in the car said Mr..
Quicker, and only six survive. Out of one
party of nine Cnly three live. One man who
had lost his wife and child and was baSi1y in
jured himself went into an adjacent cornfeld
and committed suicide. Six young men from
Canton who were in the first car were saved by
being thrown up through the parted roof" A
woman seated near Mr.. Quicker thrust her head
through car window aud was decapitated.
The pockets OF a number Of those in ,ured were
picked by unfeeling rowdies.
X. q. Riser. Of kankakce, who was ut the
scene Of the wreck soon after the disaster,
says:
Il was at FL Paso and missed the excursion
train by less than I'VE minutes. Twenty-six
minutes atterward took u freight train, and
| hon. fsAf 20 fh. .n1a had
orders to bring all the physicians he could
When we arrived at the wreck found
the most heartrend ng and indescribable
scene ever witnessed. Every
begging to be taken from the wreck,
they afraid of il catching fire. The bridge
was on fire and no water was at hand TO put it
out. All the trainmen and such passengers as
could went TO work TO smother the FIRE. We had
nothing to work with except our hands and
had to carry dirt ms best we could.
AT about 80 q. M a shower of rain put out
the fire and we turned our attention to reiiev-
ing the people in the cars. We worked until
8 a. IN and took out sixty-one dead
bodies, besides of wounded peo-
pie. They terribly mangled. Re-
lief trains took the dead and wounded to Piper
City and Chatsworth. Tho city hall and
school. house Rt Chntsworth were inlprovised
into hospital and the cit came to our
relief with coffee, bread, and butter, and
everything possible especially bandages and
medicine for the suffering
Mr.. Riser said he stood the sickening work
of relieving the wounded and getting out the
| dead until he came 10 the ueHu DOdleS OF -
girls about the age of his own, when his i0-
nanity gave way and he was compelled to
| stop.
THE DEAD.
The news OF the disaster was brought to
| Chatsworth by one Of the passengers about mid
night, and the inhabitants aroused. Buggies,
| lumber-wa IONS, and every kind Of vehicle were
| used to reach the fatal spot. AS fastAs the
corpses were taken from the wreck
| they were laid out on the side of the
track. Before midnight the work of re-
th. md xTft.r a.
| Chatsworth was begun. AS soon as the corpses
| were received they placed in a large
vacant building lately occupied as a store |;
| also in the public school house and in
| the depot-wating room. The residents of
| the town threw open their houses for
the reception Of the dead and wounded,
| improvised morgues. Friend and relatives
| OF the dead came to Chatsworth with
the remains, and the scenes in the different
| places where the bodies lay were heartrending.
| As tho day passed bodies were being contin-
| ually brought from the scene of the wreck, the
majority OF them being manuled in the most
| frightful manner, many of them having their
| faces entirely torn away, leaving their brains
exposed, while their jaws, fingers, and legs had
| been torn off.
NOTHING TO LIVE FOR.
There was one incident OF the ACCIDENT which
| stood out more horrible than all of those horri-
BILE scenes. In the second coach was man,
| his wife, and little child. His name could not
| be learned, but it is said he got on at
Peoria. When the accident occurred the
! tire family of three were caught and held down
| by broken woodwo Finally, when relief
came, the man turned to the friendly aid and
| feebly said:
take out my wife first I'm afraid the child
| is dead."
| So they carried out the mother, and as a
| broken seat was taken of her crushed breast
| the blood which welled from her lips told how
badly she was hurt. They carried the child, a
fair haired blus-eyed girl of 3. and laid her in
| the corn-f field, dead, alongside of her dying
| mother. Then they went back for the father and
| brought him out Both his legs were broken. but
| he crawled through the corn TO the side~sf his
| wife, and, feeling her loved features in the
| darkness, pressed some brandy To her lipS and
! asked her how she felt feeble eroan was
| the only answer, and the next instan she died.
| The man felt the form of his dead wife and
| child, and cried out: My God. there rs moth
| ing more for me TO live for now !" and. taking q
| pistol out of his pocket, pulled the trigger The
| bullet went surely drought the brain, and the
three dead bodies OF that little family
| lying side by side in Chatsworth waiting to
| DO identified
| INCIDENTS OF THE HORROR.
| One man with both legs broken dragged HIM
| self away from the wreck and took out a pistol
| and shot himself I'm the head. superintendent
| Armstrong OF the Wabash. accompanied the
| excursion with his special car, with several
| officials Of the road. None OF them was hurt
| From the latest reports il is said that 12G were
| killed and about three hundred wounded, max
| ing IL one Of the worst railroad accidents ever
1 Eunaun I'm thfa